Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-10-01
LIFE ON UNCLE SANS FARM.
An Irish Servant Girl Details Her
Experience in This Country.

II Experience in This Country.
have lived out in this country for
six years. l have had very good
places, but do not feel contented here
and would be glad to get back to Ire
land. l think most of the girls feel
the same way. [ have always made
good wages, but money is not every
thing. l save my money and so do
most of the girls l know. for we never
know when we may have to send it
home to help the old folks. Times
are hard over there. And sometimes
a girl will want to bring out brother
or sister whom she thinks can do
better over here. They mostly don't,
and wish they were back. but we try
to help them all the same. As gen.
eral thing, girls are satisfied with
their wages. 1t is easy to change if
they are not, for there are plenty of
places.
Some girls do not save much, but
spend most all their wages for tinery.
l do not think they know how to shop
very we'll. They think more of how
thing looks than of the quality. l
have lived where there was cook,
but never heard of her taking any
money from the store people for get
ting them to serve food to the house.
1 do not believe it is a general thing.
The mistress attends to all those
things herself. 1t may be the case in
very rich families, where the lady does
not want to be bothered with seeing to
ANYTHING, as the cook is more like
housekeeper.
We get every other Sunday and every
other Thursday off for ourselves, from
after dinner or lunch in the middle of
the day till 10 o'clock. / think 10
o'clock is late enough for a girl to be
out. think they are mostly all salts
fled with their time off. You see we
are better off than shop-girls and fac
tory-girls, who have to work all the
time, and only have their evenings to
themselves. Besides, / don't think
homework is so tiresome as standing
all day or running a machine, and it is
healthier.
In most houses girls are allowed to
see their friends at suitable times, but
very few ladies like to have men hang
ing around the kitchen. / don't won
der at it, l am sure. The lady mostly
comes down the last thing at night to
give orders for breakfast, or about the
washing, or something, and it is not
very nice to meet n great hulking man
sitting there and perhaps smoking, for
they are very free and easy.
l have heard girls say that if they
wanted male company they had to see
them out of the house. And that is
bad. too. for it keeps them up late.
The food We get is mostly good.
plain, but good; but l have heard girls
tell about places where they have been
where they scarcely got enough to eat.
bad as it was, and that, too. in houses
where you would think that there was
the best of everything and plenty of it.
Some people want to put all their
money on their backs, and so, of
course, the table suffers.
l have known of people who had
splendid house and furnished elegant
and always dressed in the height of
the style, and yet the table was the
meanest you ever saw. If they have
such poor food themselves, of course
the girl can't expect any better. There
was one family who changed girls four
or five times a month, and at last they
couldn't get anybody to live with them
except greenhorn right off the vessel
There is a good deal of gossip goes
on between the girls about the people
they live with. All their affairs are
pretty well known. You see, the girls
don't have much to interest them, and
so they sort of take an interest in the
family they live with. That is socable
girls do. Some girls don't care brass
button about the people so long as they
get their money all right. German and
Swede girls are like that. Irish girls
are more warm-hearted, and if people
are kind to them they like them and
will do a good deal for them. don't
mean to say that it is right to talk about
the family outside, but sometimes a
girl don't think, and it comes out before
she knows il. She don't mean any
harm. 1t is very hard for people to
keep things from girls. They are
around all the time, and see and hear
everything almost They generally
like the gentleman of the house
because he don't interfere with them.
Girls don't say much about getting
married. even to each other / guess
the most of them think they would have
just as hard work then as they do now.
and poorer place to do it in. When
they do marry sometimes they do well,
but often they have to get a place
again after awhile. Sometimes girls
go to the country with family and be-
fore they come back get engaged to
marry farmer. That generally does
very well.
Girls do not care much to take Sec
ond-hand clothes from mistress unless
it is pretty nice. They may take it but
they won't wear It.
Wages are better than they have
been for some years; a good girl of all
work gets S12 month. If she can
make desserts she gets s14. A good
cook $50. There is always good help
to be had if people want to pay for it.
The trouble is, some people think they
can get good girl for most nothing.
1t is cheaper for them to pay more
and get good one, for the cheap ones
waste and break more than their wages
worth every month.
A good girl makes a settled home.